It started with a phone call
by Smoketail
Summary: My own twisted writing of Snape and Hermione. AU Rated M for possible future lemons.
1. Yes

I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters I have chosen to torment in this fic. They all are the rightful property of J.K. Rowling.

AN: I'm going to say up front that I'm sure I messed up on most of the British slang, I apologize for that. Feel free to correct me or offer suggestions. I also probably messed up the Spanish at the bottom, I used a translator so don't shoot me, just give a correction.

I want to thank Loten for turning me onto this particular pairing and hope y'all enjoy reading my attempt at writing.

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><p><em>Ring...ring...ri...<em> "Hello?"

"Uh. Hi? Is this Serverus Snape?" a hesitant female voice came over the line.

"Possibly. It depends on who's asking." He said warily, not used to people just up and calling him.

"My name is Hermione Granger. I moved into you're old apartment, and I guess the post hasn't started going to your new place yet because I have some post for you."

"Just send it back tomorrow. You can write 'forward to new address' on it and it'll get to me." he growled.

"Well.." she said a little uncertainly. "Some of it looks a bit important and one says open immediately. I can just run it over to you...if you're busy or something."

Severus rolled his eyes, glad that she couldn't see him for some reason. "I'll be over in a bit. I have to run a couple errands in that direction anyway."

"Ok." she sounded a bit more chipper, as if glad to have completed her good deed for the day. "I'm still unpacking stuff, so just come on in when you get here."

"I'll do that."

An hour later saw him climbing the front steps to his old apartment. It wasn't a bad place, he'd actually enjoyed his time here. He'd just needed something a bit closer to his job, which had moved across the city. He knocked on the frame of the screen door. Despite her invitation to come right in, he didn't want to scare her.

"I'm in the backroom." Came the female voice from the telephone. "Grab a box when you come through, please."

He shrugged and stepped inside. He shook his head, amused at the dozens of stacks of boxes plied in what had used to be his living room. He grabbed a small box and grunted as he hefted it up from the floor.

"What do you have in here? Bricks?" he asked, moving down the hall to what used to be his office.

"Books. Most likely. If it's really heavy."

He stepped into the room and saw most of the walls taken up by floor to ceiling bookshelves, and a rather young woman kneeling at the foot of one stacking books on a low shelf. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that only barely kept it out of her face. She was wearing a rather small black t-shirt and a pair of low rise jeans.

She smiled up at him and waved vaguely to the rest of the room. "Pick a spot and set it down."

Once the box was on the floor, she stood and brushed her hands off on the legs of her jeans before offering one for a shake. "Hermione Granger. And you must be Mr. Severus Snape."

"Indeed." He replied, shaking her hand briefly. "I like what you've done with the room."

"Thanks. It was like the builder wanted a room for an office or library in this place." She tucked a stray pice of hair behind her ear and gestured towards the door. "Want something to drink?"

"I suppose." He said, feeling a slight twist in his gut as she smiled brightly at him.

"Cool. I have milk, tea, water, some sports drink, and some kind of fruit punch stuff my mom foisted off on me." She said, leading the way to the kitchen.

"Water will be fine. So you got anyone else helping you with this mess?" He gestured to the stacks in the living room.

"Not really. My mom said she'd come over after work, but that's not until later. And my dad's gonna be even later, if he manages to show up. He tends to work later than mum." She shrugged and filled a glass with water for him and poured herself some of the sports drink. "It's mostly books anyway. I gotta get them organized in the other room, and that's not something mum or dad are good at. I mean they know how to organize stuff, they just don't get my system. Which not many people get anyway. I had a couple friends that said they'd try and come help, but I'm sure I'm gonna get a couple calls in a couple hours with some lame excuse about how they can't come help. Which is probably a good thing since they'd just get in the way themselves." She smiled and shook her head slowly at the thought.

He sipped the water. Then shrugged his shoulders. "Would you like some help? At least with the moving of stuff. I don't have much else to do this afternoon."

"Sure." She gave him another smile. "That'd be great. I can do it by myself, but company is always appreciated."

Hermione led the way back to the room she was setting up as her library, amazed that Severus had offered to help her unpack. She'd only really expected him to stop by, grab his mail, and leave. But it was nice and she hadn't lied when she said Harry and Ron were probably gonna call off on helping her out. She grabbed another box of books on her way through the living room, giving him a chance to grab one too. She smiled at his small grunt of effort, though she mostly hid it by walking in front of him towards the back room.

"So what'd you have in here when this was your place?" she asked conversationally as she set the box on the floor and knelt by her previous box of books.

"This was my office, actually. It had the best lighting for it." He looked around curiously. "But this is definitely a good room for a library too. Where would you like me to start?"

"Open a box and tell me what's in it." She said, stacking books on the bottom shelf.

"Looks like Hemingway...Shakespeare...Dante...Jane Austin."

"The classics go on the shelf in that corner." She pointed at the other end of her wall of shelves. "Just start putting them on the shelf left to right from the top down. I'll have to go back and put the final touches on it later, cause my friends have no idea how to pack at all." She chuckled as she went back to work.

"You don't seem to have a high opinion of your friends." He sounded amused as he stacked books on the high shelf.

"I do. I just happen to know that I can't expect much out of them if they're not suited for a particular task. Like Harry, I would trust him at my back in a fight or to get me into trouble. Especially if Ron's around too. And Ron is real good with strategy, but totally hopeless when it comes to dealing with women." She smiled ruefully. "And I'm pretty sure neither of them would have done half as well in school if I hadn't been around to help them."

"So you're in college then?" He asked nonchalantly as he scanned the titles of the books he was slowly filling the shelf with.

"Yeah, I start my second year in the fall. I convinced my parents it'd be easier for me to focus on my studies if I was closer to campus. So what do you do?"

"I'm a chemistry teacher actually. Mostly high school, but I do a two month accelerated course in the summer at the college."

"That must be fun." She said, moving to the next box. "I was contemplating doing a couple summer courses, but figured that it'd be easier to move if I wasn't trying to get to class on time. And homework would have been a nightmare."

She started unpacking a box of college texts onto the bottom half of the shelf next to his.

"It actually is most days, since I teach the advanced chemistry classes, the students tend to be a bit more mature and not as likely to annoy me." He smiled and continued to shelve the books. "So I take it you like to read a bit."

She blushed and ducked her head. "Yeah, just a bit. My friends are always teasing me about it. Saying I'll never find a husband if I always have my nose in a book." She shrugged. "But since neither of them have settled on one girl yet, they don't really have a leg to stand on."

"I see. Well, it sounds like they don't know much of anything anyway. Because plenty of people spend time in bookstores and libraries." He paused and gave her a look of surprise. "I take it your friends don't know you own this book, do they?"

Hermione looked up at the thick volume in his hands and blushed even brighter. "Uh...no they don't. My aunt got that for me as a gag gift of sort when I graduated high school. Said everyone needs to know 'how to get the job done properly'."

"Intelligent woman, your aunt." He said with a soft chuckle.

After that they lapsed into a companionable silence as they slowly filled the shelves with books. The only sounds were of them opening boxes and the whisper of the books sliding onto the shelves.

Severus was amazed at the variety of topics and genres in attendance on her shelves. She seemed to have everything from classic literature to science texts to modern fiction and poetry. At some point she'd turned on the light so they didn't strain their eyes as the sun moved down behind some of the surrounding buildings.

"I must say I have never seen quite so many books outside of a library or a bookstore." He said as he slid the last book onto its shelf.

Hermione shrugged sheepishly. "I've just always liked books, and have found most of them to be useful at one point or another."

"What degree are you working towards?"

"My parents want me to be a doctor of some kind, but I was kind of thinking that I'd do a bit of good in the government." She shrugged.

"Your folks not want a politician in the family? I find that hard to believe. My parents would have been ecstatic if I'd done something more than being a high school chemistry teacher."

"But teachers are always needed." She said with a smile. "You wanna stick around for dinner? Since you were so kind to stay and help me unpack. I was thinking of doing Chinese or maybe pizza."

Severus shook his head. "I'll stay, but there aren't any good Chinese or pizza places that deliver here. If you like Mexican though, there's a nice place around the corner that makes a great burrito."

She thought for a moment before nodding. "That sounds good. Thanks. You wanna order? I'll go clear some space in the living room for us to sit down."

He nodded and smiled as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number for the restaurant. "We want it delivered, or you wanna walk over and pick it up?" he asked, while waiting for someone to answer the phone.

"We can pick it up. It'll be good to check out some of the neighborhood."

He nodded and turned a little as the phone was finally answered. "Hola, Josè. Es Severus. Necesito dos burritos para la recogida. Vente minutos? Gracis. Hasta luego." He hung up and turned back to Hermione who was looking at him in amazement.

"Wow. I don't think I've ever met anyone that spoke Spanish fluently."

He shrugged. "I mostly picked it up from Josè actually. So I know more street Spanish rather than the stuff they teach in school."

"Cool. Can you say anything else?"

"Tu eres muy hermosa."

"What's that mean?"

He smiled at her. "I'll tell you later." He glanced down at his watch. "If you want, we can start walkin' towards the restaurant. I can show you few of the sights."

She smiled and nodded. "Sure. I think my folks will like it that I have someone to show me the sights and who's willing to help me unpack." She let him lead the way out the door and locked it behind them. "So anything I should know about the neighbors? Am I living next door to family with a bunch of small kids?"

"Well, as long as no one else has moved out in the last couple of weeks, Mrs. Hambit in the unit on the end lives by herself with her two cats. I used to shovel her front walk for her in the winter. There was a younger couple next to her, didn't see much of them, but they were pretty quiet. And I think there was a rather well off young man in the one next to you. I say well off cause his parents always looked a bit snooty when they dropped by for visits. But he was pretty quiet too, hadn't lived there too long, maybe six months before I moved out."

"Cool. Maybe I'll see about taking over the snow service for you." She said with a smile. "Or con Ron or Harry into doing it."

A short while later they arrived at the little Mexican restaurant and picked up their food. Severus must have been a regular customer because the two guys behind the counter were happy to see him and their conversation seemed to be rather friendly, though Hermione wasn't able to catch half of what they said.

After they finished eating, Severus walked her back to her place. "So, I know I just stopped by to grab my mail, but this was kinda fun. Would you mind if I stopped by again?" He asked, sounding a little nervous.

She smiled and blushed a little. "Sure. I don't start classes for another couple of weeks, so I'll probably be here most of that time getting this place in order. Drop by whenever."

"Cool. I'll see you around then."

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><p>AN: Thank you for reading this, I shall have another chapter up later in the week.<p> 


	2. First Meetings

AN:Sorry about the lateish update. My wireless router crapped out last week so I spent three days trying to get someone to fix it with no luck. Anyway so it took a bit more effort to get this chapter out than I was expecting. It's also a bit short. I'm gonna try to have another chapter up in a couple days.

Also, thanks to everyone that reviewed or put this story on their watch list.

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><p>"So who's this guy you had helpin' you move in? He sounds like a real git." Ron asked around a mouthful of food.<p>

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Just the guy that lived in the apartment before me. I called him to give him some mail, and he stuck around to help me unpack my books."

Ron snorted. "How much did you have to pay him to get him to do that?"

"Nothing. He volunteered to stick around since I was doing it all by myself." She gave both boys a pointed look to which they had the decency to look ashamed. "Despite having two friends promise that they'd help."

"We're sorry, 'Mione. Coach made us run a double practice cause he felt everyone had slacked off during the off season." Harry said, looking thoroughly apologetic.

"It's all right. Severus was more helpful than the two of you would have been anyway." She smirked at them as she remembered the easy companionship she'd had with Severus the day before. "And as much as it is to hear you two apologize a million times. I have to get home and do a little more work before Severus comes over."

Ron snorted. "You're seein' him again?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes. He asked if he could come over again and I said 'yes'. He seems like a pretty nice guy."

"Well, I think me and Harry should meet him. Make sure he isn't like an axe murderer or something." Ron looked to Harry for his best friend's agreement.

Harry shrugged. "Ron, kinda has a point. You don't know if he's not really a bad guy or something."

"Fine. Come over. Say hi. But don't be rude, all right? I will kill which ever of your two is rude to him."

"You know, you seem to be awfully protective of this guy that you just met yesterday. Are you sure nothin' else happened besides unpacking your books?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. Just the books and burritos for dinner. Now let's go. You two can help me arrange my living room properly. And if I'm protective, it's because you two are always absolutely horrible to any guy that shows an interest in me."

A couple hours later saw Hermione's living room arranged properly. And the two boys worn out from moving some of the heavier pieces.

"Glad that's done, mate." Ron panted, splayed out across the couch. "Remind me to never offer to help someone move again. This is torture."

Hermione chucked a slipper at Ron hitting him in the stomach. "Oh, be quiet, Ron. You're being such a baby. Now Severus should be here shortly. Behave."

"Is it just me, or has Hermione gotten bossier since she moved into her own place?" Ron asked in a loud whisper. "Ow." Ron winced in pain after Hermione smacked him in the head.

"Serves you right." Hermione smiled as a soft knock sounded on the front door. She gave the boys a final glare. "Now. Behave."

She strolled over to the door and pulled it open. "Hey, how's it going?" She asked looking him over, secretly enjoying the sight of him in a pair of black jeans and tight black t-shirt.

"Good." He frowned slightly at the sight of Harry and Ron lounging on her furniture. "Yourself?"

"Good." She gestured to Harry and Ron. "These are my friends Harry and Ron. We were hanging out earlier and they wanted to see for themselves that you're not a serial killer." She shook her head in disbelief.

Harry moved off the couch and stepped up to shake Severus' hand. "Harry Potter. Good to meet you."

"Severus Snape. And I'm not a serial killer." He replied mildly.

Harry nodded, looking Snape over with interest. "You know, I'm sure a serial killer would deny being one." He said with a playful grin on his face.

Severus rolled his eyes and grunted. "Will they be sticking around?"

"No. They'll be leaving as soon as Ron stops being rude and introduces himself." Hermione glared at Ron until the red-head rolled off the couch and walked over.

"Ron Weasley." Ron looked rather reluctant to actually shake hands with the older man. After a moment Ron shook Severus' hand. "Don't hurt her, or we'll hurt you."

Severus smiled as Ron lead the way out the door. "They really care for you."

"Most days it seem that way. Others, I'd rather just kill them myself." She smiled as she wandered to the kitchen. "Want something to drink?"

"Yeah. Tea will be good." He followed after her. "So your friends seem rather...interesting."

She snorted while placing the kettle on the stove to heat some water. "That's one way to put it. They're kinda like younger brothers, actually. Always thinking they have to protect me." She shrugged. "But they're mostly harmless, unless you happen to be facing them on the soccer pitch. Then it's a whole different game."

Severus chuckled. "I doubt I'll ever set foot on a soccer pitch in this life time. So...is there anything here you'd like to do? Or would you like me to show you more sights of the neighborhood?"

"I don't know. It probably would be good to know where some of the stuff is around here. And it is a nice day."

"Cool. Walk or drive?"

She shrugged. "Up to you. I wouldn't want to waste your gas or tire you out if you have to work or something."

He waved her off. "Neither is an issue. Driving it shall be then. I, for one am not opposed to walking, but it's quicker to get around to everything with a car."

"That it is." She said with a smile. "Want your tea to go then?"

He nodded. "That'd be good."

A few short minutes later, they were in the cab of Severus' truck cruising down the street as he pointed out sights. Hermione found herself enjoying the little trip, even though he was mostly just pointing out useful places like the small corner store where she could pick up the "few essentials" between visits to the grocery store, and the video store that always had a good selection.

He managed to stretch the little tour out to an hour, before finally pulling back in front of her place. "Well, those are the major sights. I'm sure I can think of some good minor ones given a day or two." He gave a lopsided smile.

"Thanks. It was nice having an expert show me around. Feel free to drop by any time. I have another few weeks before classes start again, so I'll probably be around most of the time." She said returning his smile.

"I shall do that. I'll see you around." He watched her climb out of the truck and walk up to her front door before driving off.


End file.
